The Merlin Tarot: My First Tarot Deck

Merlin TarotThis weekend I was tidying up my stored files and I came across some scanned cards from The Merlin Tarot. It got me thinking about the deck and how much I had loved using it. Although I had practiced with other decks before the Merlin Tarot, this is the tarot deck I consider to be my real first. Here I will share some of the things I loved about this deck and show you that no matter what popular wisdom or reviews say, no one can predict the tarot cards that you will connect with. As the worn and dulled images of my cards show, this is a tarot deck that I used for many, many years right at the start of my tarot journey.

A Tarot Deck for Newbies?

Merlin Tarot - Ace of CupsThe cards are based on the legend of Merlin and the Major Arcana feature beautiful artwork. If you read reviews of this deck, everyone seems to agree on that at least. However, most reviewers will then continue to say that it is not suitable for newbies. There are a number of reasons for this and I can see the logic behind that statement. After all it is not a classic tarot deck. The Major Arcana is numbered very differently from Rider-Waite based decks. The Minor Arcana sees the usual Cups, Pentacles, Swords and Wands replaced respectively with Fishes, Beasts, Birds and Serpents. Furthermore, apart from the Aces, the suits do not feature unique images, but instead pip cards. The Minor Arcana cards are not numbered, but feature a keyword at the bottom, which admittedly I never found very helpful. This has lead many to surmise that the repetitive nature of these pip cards does not make this a good deck for intuitive readings and should be avoided as a first deck. This is something I could not agree with less as it was my first deck.

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How The Merlin Tarot Came to Me

Merlin Tarot - FortuneBefore The Merlin Tarot, I had used cheap versions of the Rider-Waite and Marseille that had come with beginner sets, and I had made no connections with the cards, and instead found myself doing practice readings consulting the accompanying books for meanings. Those were not tarot readings at all, as I was not even really learning the meanings, just going through the motions. Then one day when I was out on a shopping trip with friends, I came across The Merlin Tarot. I loved the artwork and I felt drawn to the cards but as I was a university student at that time, I didn’t want to spend my limited funds on more tarot paraphernalia. I think at that time, I may have given up on tarot reading not long after that.

However, not long after that, the two friends I had been out shopping with (who were also my main guinea pigs when I practiced readings) bought me the deck. They wanted to get me something to cheer me up, but their thoughtful gift is what started me on my real journey with the tarot.

The Perfect First Deck for Me

Merlin Tarot - Hanged ManI was so drawn to the images of the cards that I would try to find out more about what the different elements meant and these were my first intuitive readings. For example, the Hanged Man card shown here is related to Merlin’s prophecy of the Threefold Death. From what I remember the story goes that the King and Queen who have Merlin want to test his accuracy and so they bring before him a young man and ask Merlin to predict his death. Merlin states that he will die by falling from a great height. The young man is then disguised and brought before Merlin again, and this time Merlin predicts he will die by hanging. A third time the young man is brought before Merlin, this time dressed as a young woman. Merlin says the death will be by drowning. After this, the King and Queen tell Merlin he is crazy, having predicted three different deaths for the same person and release him. Many years later, when the young man is an adult, he is out hunting. In his exuberant pursuit of a beast, he falls from atop a cliff, and while falling his foot is caught in the branches of a tree, but rather than this saving him, his head is submerged under the surface of the stream below and the man drowns to death. Therefore, Merlin’s prophecy comes to pass. This is just one of the many stories and legends the cards are based upon.

It could be argued that my exploration of these stories is what made these cards so vivid and interesting to me, but my further reading came much later. Before that I began to receive so much information when I was reading, and to a newbie like me, I was stunned that I could ‘see’ things about people that the cards did not seem to overtly suggest. The Merlin Tarot was definitely a gateway to my own psychic abilities and intuition.

Card Meditations

Merlin Tarot - PriestessAnother practice I found really helpful at that time was meditating on a card for further insight. My favourite was the Priestess card, and this makes sense as I was starting out on my own psychic and spiritual journey. I liked the idea that all the information and insight I needed was within me and I used these meditations to try to unlock that and receive guidance from my higher self.

Merlin Tarot - StarBefore sleeping at night I would concentrate on the image of the Priestess and I would always be drawn to a different aspect of the image. I would then place the card under my pillow and sleep and do the same in the morning. Many answers about my own life came to me in this way and in my dreams.

I also loved the Star tarot card. This is the card related to Aquarius, my own sun sign and of all the Star depictions I have seen in numerous decks, this is still the card I feel most connects to the astrological sign. When I needed healing or help, or just to ground myself, this is the card I would use in my meditations.

The Merlin Tarot Today

I used this deck so much, that the cards became dull and the edges frayed and grimy. In the end I had to use a different deck and this is when I began to use Rider-Waite based decks. But the fact that I had learned the basics of tarot with a non-Rider-Waite deck actually helped me to make the transition and my exploration of the images of new decks helped enhance my understanding and increased the depths of my readings. None of that would have been possible without my connection to The Merlin Tarot.

My own deck is currently with my sister, who is not a tarot reader, who asked to borrow it as she wanted to try and read the cards as a newbie. I don’t think she ever really used them, which says more about her than the deck, so I will be asking her to return the deck the next time I see her.

As much as I would recommend The Merlin Tarot, it is not readily available these days, although you can still find copies of it around. If you want to try something a little different and are willing to give these cards a go based solely on your own intuition and understanding, then you cannot go wrong with The Merlin Tarot.

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